The purpose of this case study is to discuss Marissa Mayer’s, chief executive officer (CEO) of Yahoo! Inc. (Yahoo), strengths and challenges around rebuilding Yahoo’s brand (Subramanian, 2015). In 1994, two students, David Filo and Jerry Yang, became overwhelmed with trying to keep track of their favorite websites, so they developed a website that allowed them to “capture their categorization method and called it Yahoo!” (Subramanian, 2015, p. 398). Later, their friends also wanted to use their new website to categorize their favorite websites, and by fall the website had recorded its millionth user (Subramanian, 2015). Consequently, both students soon realized that they stumbled upon a potential business opportunity and quickly appointed Tim Koogle, Stanford graduate and Motorola veteran, as the company’s first CEO.
Unfortunately, between 1996 and 2012 the company had over five CEO’s before appointing Marissa Mayer, which was a senior executive at Google at the time. The main products Yahoo offered in the “Communications and Communities category included Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, Flickr, and Connected TV…” (Subramanian, 2015, p. 400). …show more content…
Mayer was later faced with the task of reestablishing Yahoo’s brand identity as a company. Due to Mayer’s technology background at Google there was a high chance that Yahoo would move towards a technology identity more than a media or advertising brand. During Mayer’s time at Yahoo, the Internet started growing and moving to a mobile platform, which Yahoo had a slight presence (Subramanian, 2015). Ultimately, Marissa Mayer was faced with many challenges from the beginning, but she was able to overcome those challenges with strategic thinking and assistance from her peers as well as shareholders. The company still faces challenges, but with Mayer’s confidence, Yahoo can overcome all future
Unfortunately, between 1996 and 2012 the company had over five CEO’s before appointing Marissa Mayer, which was a senior executive at Google at the time. The main products Yahoo offered in the “Communications and Communities category included Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, Flickr, and Connected TV…” (Subramanian, 2015, p. 400). …show more content…
Mayer was later faced with the task of reestablishing Yahoo’s brand identity as a company. Due to Mayer’s technology background at Google there was a high chance that Yahoo would move towards a technology identity more than a media or advertising brand. During Mayer’s time at Yahoo, the Internet started growing and moving to a mobile platform, which Yahoo had a slight presence (Subramanian, 2015). Ultimately, Marissa Mayer was faced with many challenges from the beginning, but she was able to overcome those challenges with strategic thinking and assistance from her peers as well as shareholders. The company still faces challenges, but with Mayer’s confidence, Yahoo can overcome all future